Monday, March 31, 2008

New recycling bins at Support Services

From Jose:

Beginning Monday, March 31, we will be stepping up our recycling efforts in the Support Services building and removing desk-side garbage bins. We will be replacing all desk-side garbage bins with recycling bins.

Recycling has come a long way. In the past we were all trained to sort recycling products, down to the staple from the papers it held together, but this is no longer necessary. Everything can now go into one recycling bin.

We have found a vendor which uses the Single Sort recycling process. Nearly everything you used to throw away can now be recycled, including glass, tin, aluminum, plastic (1-7; you can find these numbers inside the international recycle symbol on most plastic items), cardboard, mixed paper (glossy paper, sticky notes etc), newspaper, magazines, junk mail, brown paper bags, staples, and cardboard – all in one bin.

The only items still considered trash are those contaminated by food products. So, please do not put a tuna fish can coated with tuna, or a yogurt cup with yogurt and berries stuck to the bottom into the recycling bins. However, if you rinse these items out well, they can be recycled.

So what happens to everything you place in the recycling bins? I was actually able to visit the plant, and witnessed the line workers sorting the items into different bins to be correctly recycled. So rest assured, the items are being recycled in the most cost-effective way.

After carefully working on this project, I find this to be the best solution that will hopefully simplify the recycling process for everyone.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns, and thank you for helping make our work environment a little greener – every bit helps.

Jose